Woodgate 'told Duberry of fight'

LEEDS United footballer Michael Duberry told a court today that his team-mate Jonathan Woodgate had told him he had been in a fight shortly after a young Asian student was beaten senseless in a street attack....

LEEDS United footballer Michael Duberry told a court today that his team-mate Jonathan Woodgate had told him he had been in a fight shortly after a young Asian student was beaten senseless in a street attack.

Defender Mr Duberry, 26, said in the witness box at Hull Crown Court that he met Woodgate in City Square in Leeds on the night in January last year, when 21-year-old Sarfraz Najeib was attacked in nearby Mill Hill.

Duberry, a former England under-21 international, said he fell into conversation with Woodgate.

Mr Duberry said: "The words were, I think, we have just been in a fight."

He said one of Woodgate's friends, Paul Clifford, was walking only five or six feet behind them - and Woodgate had told him that Clifford had bitten someone.

Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough, fellow Leeds United star Lee Bowyer, 24, of Leeds, and Clifford and Neale Caveney, both 22, from Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Najeib. They also deny affray.

Mr Duberry told the jury he had been playing for Leeds United reserves on January 11 last year.

After the game he returned to Leeds and went to the Majestyk nightclub.

The jury heard that Mr Duberry left the night club at 12.50am and saw a group of people across the street outside the Queen's Hotel.

"I saw Woody near the Observatory," Duberry told the jury. "He was coming across the road, walking back.

"I never crossed the road, he joined me. As he crossed the road we started walking back towards Majestyk."

That was when Woodgate confessed that he had been in a fight and his friend Clifford had beaten someone, Mr Duberry said.

Mr Najeib, 21, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured cheekbone, broken leg and bite mark to his right cheek, in the attack, in Mill Hill, Leeds, in January last year.

Woodgate, Bowyer, Caveney and Clifford are alleged to have chased Mr Najeib and his friends before attacking the Leeds Metropolitan University student in the side street.

Mr Duberry told the jury that when Woodgate said his friend had bitten someone, Clifford showed no reaction.

He believed they were going back to the nightclub, he said, adding: "Woody did not get in."

Woodgate, Clifford, Caveney and two other friends were then driven by Mr Duberry in his black Range Rover to his home in Woodlesford, Leeds, the court was told.

Mr Duberry said when they got to his house Michael Bridges, another Leeds United player, rang him on his mobile phone.

"Bridgy asked me if had I seen Woody or was I with Woody," he told the jury.

The court was told that Mr Duberry handed his mobile to Woodgate but the phone cut off.

Mr Duberry said: "That's when I phoned Bridgy again for Woody."

The court was told that Woodgate went into the hallway to speak to Mr Bridges.

"He (Woodgate) was not really saying much, he was not saying much at all," said Mr Duberry.

"Woody came back into the room and explained that the lad's in a bad way, that there was police and ambulance there."

Asked by Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, how Woodgate appeared when he came back into the room, Mr Duberry replied: "Shocked."

Mr Duberry told the court that the room fell silent.

"I think Clifford took it the worse," said Mr Duberry.

"Everyone was round him and consoling him. I do not remember what words were said."

Cross examined by David Fish QC, for Woodgate, Mr Duberry admitted having lied

to police when he was interviewed following the attack on Mr Najeib.

Mr Duberry said he lied to cover up for his friend "Woody".

"At the beginning it was just to help Woody out and it just escalated into one big story that wasn't the truth," he told the jury.

"It was one lie on top of another. It was getting deeper and deeper and I was trying to get myself out. There's a big chunk I missed out."

The jury was told that during the first trial earlier this year, Mr Duberry was a defendant charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

It had been alleged he was part of a cover-up following the violence in Mill Hill.

But he was found not guilty of the charge together with Woodgate, Clifford and Caveney.

Mr Duberry said he had been told he could have been facing a jail sentence of 18 months.

Mr Fish said: "I am suggesting that in order to avoid a prison sentence, to avoid being found guilty, you came (to the first trial) with a new version."

Mr Duberry replied: "No."

He told the jury he had deliberately left out any reference to violence because he did not want to be questioned further and did not want to get Woodgate into trouble.

Mr Duberry told the court he had lied in his first statement to police in February last year.

Before he made a further statement a month later, he told his solicitor at the time, Peter McCormick, that he had lied to the police. But Mr McCormick told him to stick to the same story, the jury was told.

Mr Fish asked: "Are you telling me that your solicitor told you to carry on lying?"

Mr Duberry: "Yes."

Mr Fish: "Do you agree that in the 12 or so months between the incident and the trial starting, you lied, lied and lied again about your involvement?."